March 28, 2006

I was very pleased to be part of this book project - it is filled
with the accumulated knowledge of the very top superstars in the galaxy
of literature teaching: Rick Beach, Deb Appleman, and Susan Hynds.

I can't imagine anything more important to do than teach, and I
think teaching literature is an avenue to teaching the most important
lessons about ways of being human, about multiple perspectives, and
about possibility.

This book will help you to teach for the big stuff, and to teach in such a way that literature will matter to your students.

March 25, 2006

The National Reading Conference listserve was a buzz about reports from California that teachers are being discouraged from using their own novels because these novels are not part of publishers' textbook curriculum consisting primarily of short shories. Here's Nancy Patterson's post:

I've heard from two middle school teachers, one in California, another in a different state, who have said they are not allowed to teach novels in middle school. The California teacher said her district has a "contract" with Prentice Hall that "forbids" them from using any materials not supplied by Prentice Hall. Teachers can assign novels as homework, but they cannot do any "direct instruction" with the novel. The other teacher's district uses McDougal Littel, and though she said nothing about a contract, she did say that her district will not allow middle school teachers to use any materials, including novels, that are not part of the McDougal Littel package.

Here's Marga Madhuri's description of the impact of preparation for the California tests based on the need to follow the test-prep script:

Yes, I'm also in California, and my old middle school requires teachers to use the stories in the McDougell Littel series, and the GREAT collection of class sets of novels are sitting in the bookroom untouched. This would have been challenging to me because most of my program was built around the novels--Giver, Outsiders, Boy, and so on. The rationale is that students need to learn the strategies, and the powers that be feel that is better done through short stories rather than those pesky novels. One teacher, who is very creative and loves poetry, was told by the principal that she CAN'T do her poetry unit until AFTER the CAT6 test has been given!!!

Another teacher in a different district is working with below-level readers, and is required to use the LANGUAGE! program this semester, with kids who were getting into novels. Now they feel like they're being punished, and district observers have stopped by her room for "spot checks" to make sure she's teaching the prescribed program. Scripted programs are making their way into the middle school!!!!!

Here is a quote from a recent Email from this teacher. Read it and weep! "Speaking of Language!...I had a surprise visit by the district office last week. That did not go well... They were checking to make sure I was doing the program. If I had stuck with my original lesson I would have been doing it. However, the students wanted to read the class novel we read on Fridays (imagine, they wanted to read). I had originally told them we'd have to wait until this Friday, but then I started thinking, "What kind of monster have I become? I won't let them read." So I chose to start the chapter early, due to some assembly schedules and state testing, etc. & of course the district appeared on a day I was supposed to be doing Language!!!! The district rep. went ballistic & started yelling at me in front of the students about how this was a 5 day a week program & how "you don't have time to read." That kind of upset me. :( I explained to her that I do this program Mon-Thurs. & we're making good progress. It irritated me that I had to justify what I do in my own classroom to a micromanaging (to the infinite degree) outside entity district office reading "specialist". She returned today & actually seemed surprised that I "actually did well" with the lesson. Anyone can do well with a scripted program telling the teacher what to say and what to teach. Anyway, that is my latest Language! story."

Sam Caughlan, of Freso State University, who works with California teachers, notes that the blame also falls on the shoulders of principals who are ill-informed about teaching literature:

In our local district, Schools in Need of Improvement at the middle school level are going over to scripted programs. However, at both the middle and high school levels, teachers are being discouraged from using novels to teach the standards and teach reading strategies (although if you look at the California State standards, it's hard to see how you can teach some of the literature standards well with only shorter works), and to stick with the textbooks. It is mainly the senior department heads in the high schools, many of whom are on the verge of retiring, who are keeping up an effective resistance.

However, we can not just blame the publishers. For example, some offer free class sets of novels if you buy their textbooks. I know of one high school English teacher who has been picking up other schools' free novels for her bookroom where they're not planning on teaching them. The main push is from certain administrators with a twisted sense of "equity," defined as everyone teaching the same curriculum from the same materials using the same "pacing guide." The rationale given is that a number of our students tend to move frequently, and such students need the stability of being able to step with assurance into the unit of the moment. Why that particular tail was chosen to wag the curricular dog, I do not know.

And, Barb Moss of San Diego State University reports:

There is an entire secondary school district in San Diego county that requires that teachers use only the state-adopted literature anthology (Holt) and nothing else. The rationale for this administrative decision was that these materials are "research-based" and "standards-based". The situation with basal readers is similar in some districts at the elementary level; teachers are required to use these materials to the exclusion of all others.